Category: Green Urban Economy

Climate Resilient Urban Development in South East Europe

Posted on by erik

More than 40 local urban practitioners from 24 municipalities and 8 countries, fitting under the EU’s regional dimension of Eastern Partnership and Western Balkans, intensively exchanged their experiences/municipal expertise within 2 weeks of digital experience on the topic of “climate resilient urban development” and jointly developed solutions and project ideas. They followed the invitation of Connective Cities to an unprecedented and unique experience: Virtual Dialogue Event: “Climate Resilient Urban Development” on 8-19 June 2020.

It has been increasingly understood that rapid urbanization and climate risks mean greater vulnerability to urban development. Many cities worldwide face significant challenges arising from natural hazards. The Southeast European region is no exception, whereas the climate resilient urban development becomes a central pillar of local sustainability policies. Most of the countries in the region continue to face environmental and climate change challenges.

This event offered a virtual platform to discuss these challenges and supported municipalities in developing locally adapted solutions for climate challenges; in exchanging cities’ significant experience of developing successful possible options and good practises; in transforming innovative urban project ideas into digital solutions especially in the aftermath of the COVID-19 outbreak, as this latter continues to impact heavily the lifestyle at all levels including the sustainable urban development workers and it’s needed to adapt to more innovative and agile ways of working for future crises responses.

During the 2 weeks asynchronous and synchronous digital experience participants listened to inspiring Keynote presentations from leading European scientists and shared insights with peers in carefully curated Peer2Peer collaboration and exchange formats. They learned how to collaborate digitally and got acquainted with some tools, methods and the overall mindset Design Thinking.

The project has built a Network, an exchange platform of urban players, which provides a systematic access to practice-oriented solutions for sustainable urban development by facilitating change and providing mutual support.

Call for participants: Local Economic Development and Job Creation in MENA

Posted on by erik

Beyond the Immediate Response to the Economic Impacts of the Pandemic

The international cities platform, Connective Cities and its initiators, the Deutsche Gesellschaft fuer Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, the German Association of Cities (Deutscher Städtetag) and Engagement Global GmbH with its Service Agency Communities in One World (SKEW), invite urban practitioners from the Middle East and North Africa region (MENA) and Germany to take part in the virtual dialogue event “Local Economic Development and Job Creation” from 29th September to 07th October 2020.

Thematic focus of the virtual dialogue event:

The Connective Cities virtual dialogue event on will focus on the following subtopics:

  1. Strategic planning for LED: guiding a participatory LED process that encourages partnership arrangements and inclusive representation; mobilizing strategic partnerships with the private sector and investors to access alternative financing mechanisms; enabling the joint design and implementation of a common development strategy; using local resources and competitive advantages to create a resilient locality.
  2. Promoting sustainable livelihood opportunities and social enterprise: implementing livelihood programs to enhance entrepreneurship skills and support the establishment of microbusinesses; contributing to social cohesiveness and conflict prevention through decent job creation for local communities.
  3. Public investments in green infrastructure and circular economies: creating decent jobs and revenues for localities through the investment in green infrastructure and circular economy; transformation towards green economy.

Objectives and Methodology

This virtual dialogue event is the first component of the Connective Cities learning process on LED and job creation and it aims at promoting the exchange of expertise on good practices for planning and implementing LED and job creation programs in cities in MENA. It thus facilitates practice-oriented exchange and peer-to-peer consultations among municipal actors on effective solutions to address challenges related to LED and job creation in their local realities. Through its virtual format, the dialogue event enables sharing of a broad variety of information synchronously as well as asynchronously, while ensuring the ease of communication between the participants. Interaction will take place using a variety of tools and the discussions will be recorded for future reference.
The objectives of the dialogue event include:

  • Facilitating exchange of know-how and experience on good practices through peer-to-peer consultation among urban practitioners from MENA and Germany;
  • Developing the capacity of participants to analyse and overcome challenges of implementing LED and job creation programs;
  • Determining future support needed for projects, which includes support from the Connective Cities International Community of Practice for Sustainable Urban Development.

Participation and Contact

Prospective participants are expected to provide a good practice example from a project they implemented or are currently implementing fitting the thematic focus of the event. We particularly encourage showcasing of good practices that incorporate gender- and/or climate-sensitive solutions.
The deadline for application is 11st September 2020.

For further details see: Call for participants [pdf 4 pages]

For applications and queries from interested experts from the MENA region, please contact: Dr. Muna Shalan, GIZ Regional Network Coordinator Connective Cities – MENA region (muna.shalan@giz.de).
Interested German experts should contact Ms. Alice Balbo, Connective Cities Project Manager at the German Association of Cities (alice.balbo@staedtetag.de).

Understanding Infrastructure Interdependencies in Cities

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“Modern urban infrastructure and their systems of operation are highly interdependent. They are formed of multiple connections, feedback and feedforward paths, and intricate branching where services or information are transferred across city sectors. This means that if one system fails, it can have cascading impacts on other systems. Climate change can compound these impacts significantly. Some systems may be directly affected by climate change events – such as roads during flooding. Other systems may be affected indirectly, such as the health sector and the financial sector if there are power outages. The interdependencies of city systems combined with climate impacts can lead to a ripple effect of disruptions. Understanding infrastructure interdependencies and critical failure points is therefore vital to achieving long- term climate resilience across a whole city.”

Heatwave Guide for Cities

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"Heatwaves are deadly and their impacts are on the rise globally due to climate change. People living in urban areas are amongst the hardest hit when a heatwave occurs because these are hotter than the surrounding countryside. Along with climate change, urbanization is one of the most transformative trends of this century and the last. Over half the world now lives in urban areas and this is projected to increase to two-thirds by 2050. It is crucial that cities incorporate heat-reduction tactics such as green spaces into their plans for growth or retrofit them in built areas. […] This practical guide is designed with, and for, people working in city government to understand, reduce the risk of, and respond to, heatwaves in their cities."

The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World

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New ways of measuring the climate footprint of cities show that urban consumption is a key driver of global GHG emissions. Cities therefore have a responsibility to significantly reduce their GHG emissions. This work has mostly focused on transport, buildings, energy and waste. This report assesses the impact of urban consumption on climate breakdown and explores the type and scale of changes needed to ensure that cities reduce their GHG emissions in line with internationally agreed, climate-safe limits.

The Future of Urban Consumption in a 1.5°C World

Posted on by erik

New ways of measuring the climate footprint of cities show that urban consumption is a key driver of global GHG emissions. Cities therefore have a responsibility to significantly reduce their GHG emissions. This work has mostly focused on transport, buildings, energy and waste. This report assesses the impact of urban consumption on climate breakdown and explores the type and scale of changes needed to ensure that cities reduce their GHG emissions in line with internationally agreed, climate-safe limits.